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EPA's Attempt to Regulate the Rain Washes Away

In the process of regulating everything under the sun, (literally) the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently made a bold grab at regulating everything from the clouds as well. More specifically, they had to defend themselves in a court case in Virginia for the right to regulate the rainfall.

The very fact that they would attempt something so bizarre is a clear indication that despite the departure of their red tape-wielding leader Lisa Jackson, the EPA has no intentions of easing off the regulatory gas pedal.

Allow me to repeat that - the EPA made a case to regulate rain water.

Steve Doocy of Fox News reported last month that "the EPA is trying regulate water as a pollutant in the great state of Virginia".

He added, "If the EPA wins" thousands of people "could be booted from their houses so the agency can flatten them and plant grass".

During oral arguments last month, Cuccinelli pointed out that VDOT and Fairfax County would be forced to condemn a significant amount of private property surrounding the creek to comply.

They added:

Congress passed the Clean Water Act in 1972 to keep pollutants out of water. But water itself is now the culprit, the EPA claims. If this makes no sense to you, join the club."

Fortunately for taxpayers, cooler heads prevailed last week when a federal judge struck down the attempt to regulate stormwater runoff as a breach of authority. The judge, U.S. District Judge Liam O'Grady, ruled that the EPA had exceeded their authority in trying to regulate stormwater runoff into a Fairfax County creek because it was a pollutant.

In doing so, O'Grady stated an obvious observation about water that falls from the sky:

“Stormwater runoff is not a pollutant, so EPA is not authorized to regulate it," O'Grady said.

The ruling saves the taxpayers of Virginia more than $300 million according to Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli.

A Fox report explains why the EPA legitimately thought that rainwater could be regulated as a pollutant:

"The EPA contended that water itself can be regulated as a pollutant if there's too much of it. The agency says heavy runoff is having a negative impact on Accotink Creek and that it has the regulatory authority to remedy the situation.”

The power grab was so absurd that both Democrats and Republicans were participants in the lawsuit that contended that the EPA was not only wasting taxpayer funds, but wasting people's time as well by proposing something of this nature.

“EPA’s thinking here was that if Congress didn’t explicitly prohibit the agency from doing something, that meant it could, in fact, do it,” said Cuccinelli. “Logic like that would lead the EPA to conclude that if Congress didn’t prohibit it from invading Mexico, it had the authority to invade Mexico. This incredibly flawed thinking would have allowed the agency to dramatically expand its power at its own unlimited discretion. Today, the court said otherwise.”

While the EPA wasn't able to get away with it this time, it shows the agency is willing to get their little regulatory hands on just about anything - including the weather.

The EPA sought to protect water in a creek by claiming it was being polluted by water from the sky. The end result was an attempted drowning of Virginians in a sea of red tape.

Perhaps that makes the EPA itself the most dangerous pollutant of all.

Rusty, your last line "Perhaps that makes the EPA itself the most dangerous pollutant of all." is an understatement of epic proportions. This world as it currently is being run, scares the hell out of me.

Rising energy and gas prices are ravaging the wallets of American citizens and President Obama has taken bold, decisive steps in order to secure an abundant supply of oil in the United States for the foreseeable future. This bold plan entails the outsourcing of American energy production to other countries such as Brazil. Indeed, this new strategy represents the stale status quo that has been on autopilot for as long as Americans ca

Do I spot a chink in the Armor? We Tea Partiers can only hope so. Project 21 and FreedomWorks Fellow Deneen Borelli recently wrote a hard-hitting, accurate piece of anaylsis in the Daily Caller concerning the long awaited counteroffensive to President Obama’s war on fossil fuels.Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2011/03/07/the-counteroffensive-to-president-obamas-war-on-fossil-fuels-begins/#ixzz1G7BuXncI

Today on Capitol Hill, there is important hearing entitled, "Examining Recent Regulatory and Enforcement Actions of the Mine Safety and Health Administration". In a time of rising energy costs and high unemployment, we need to reduce onerous and duplicative regulations to ensure that our economy flourishes once again.

West Virginia is facing two threats from big government at the state and federal levels: new greenhouse gas regulations from the EPA and a new cigarette tax hike from Charleston. Both are bad fiscal policy. Both would raise costs and harm businesses. Both need to be stopped.

A Promise fulfilled: so far anywayThis Wednesday House republicans, in an effort led by Rep Fred Upton (R-MI) plan to unveil long awaited legislation which would ban the Environmental Protection Agency from Regulating corporations in concern to Green House Gases under the Clean Air Act. Much to the anger of the bloated EPA and the Obama Administration, they expect to advance their Bill rapidly.Fred Upton himself in a recent OPED in the Detroit News evoked the free market spirit of Former President Reagan. Upton stated: "I had the great privilege of working for

U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson struck down the individual mandate of Obama's health care law today, finding the measure which requires citizens to purchase health care by 2014 to be unconstitutional. This is a big early victory in a long fight which will now move to federal appeals court and will likely be finally decided by the Supreme Court.

After months of hard work, the Murkowski Resolution of Disapproval, will be up for a vote on June 10th. This is an important resolution that could stop a massive EPA power grab. FreedomWorks friend and ally Tom Borelli has a great update on this battle over at Townhall.com.

This is a quick reminder to tell you that today is our Day of Action to stop the EPA power grab and support the Murkowski Resolution of Disapproval. Your senators need to hear from you TODAY.We have all worked too hard over the past months to let this go down without a serious fight. Please visit and call your senators' district offices - and urge your friends to do so as well.